Ahh Snow. I dig extraneous buttons. 5:1 faux to real?
As tempting as it is, I will not label the fire button "Emergency Off".
Nor will I create a russian-roulette soft button randomizer that will change all button functions after every N firings...
But, say, 9 keyswitches, that's just plain sexy.
I've got a mess of Medeco key switches I've been saving for something cool.

Found some stainless, aluminum, brass, and copper scrap while cleaning the shop. (Edude - you can now walk halfway thru w/o having to sidestep!)
Found steel, aluminum, stainless, and copper rivets too.
Decided the shoulder pad rig could use a bit of sexing up.
Massively distressed the plastic w/ rasps, files, wire brushes, chisel, rotary brush, veggie peeler, zest grater, etc.
Pounded out 1/4" copper tubing into collars.
Cold forged the brass stock on the concrete floor to match the contours of the hard plastic plates. Got it nice and f'd up, ancient and abused looking.
Added misc cast brass parts, electronic components, and whatever caught my eye. I painted on some chems to give the non-ferrous mets a patina. Only did the brass tag on the right breast to see if it needs a bit more eye of newt. I'll know in the AM.

Drilling and positioning before riveting.

Front view.

Rear view.

Top view. Figure since I'll be camping in T-City I'd show some civic pride with appropriate shoulder insignia.

Need more SS & Cu rivets, some thinner brass stock, and some onion rings from Burgerville.

looks like it, but knowing Foxfur for just a short while, I would say a more likely name would be "Grounded Conductive Metallic Transport Membrane / Iso & Exothermal Ovens"; leftover from use in some hi-tech conveyor shit

EspressoDude wrote:Ff: Is that chain mail I see spilling out of the green tote?

That's mail at the top of the 1st pic.

I make that too, the old fashioned way, one ring at a time...

I got up one morning 6 months ago and wondered "How do I make chainmail?"
Googled it, grabbed some fiddly bits outta the shop, and 30 minutes later I was making my own.

Was considering putting some mail on the rig but not enough real estate. Considering 1/4 sleeves, just don't know yet. Need to go to the hdwe store for more brass and Cu & pounds of rivets.

Found my letter stamps this morning, All I could find yesterday was the numbers and I can't express myself as well with them. I drilled the rivets and took the heavy brass plates off. Stamped them with what the voices in my head told me to. Those voices are hiliarious, a laugh a minute. Won't tell you what I stamped. You'll have to find me to read em yerself .

The weathering solution works great. The brass and copper look 50 years old now.

EspressoDude wrote:looks like it, but knowing Foxfur for just a short while, I would say a more likely name would be "Grounded Conductive Metallic Transport Membrane / Iso & Exothermal Ovens"; leftover from use in some hi-tech conveyor shit

Ahh yes. You reminded me. Somewhere I have about ten feet of titamium mesh belt from a continuous linear feed heat treating oven I modified for Gerber knives. I have NFI where it is... Now THAT would be the great.
Must find, must find, must find...

This is Gonzo's and my current to do list:
ironing 25 yards of unbleached muslin
printing a new "THANK YOU FOR GIVING A SHIT" page so it can be made into a stencil
cutting "FUCK THE MATH" stencil
spray painting 16 t-shirts
buy/acquire 25 yards of 100% cotton knit fabric
modify shade structure so we don't have a repeat of last year

That's just our current projects. The signs are still pending. Gonzo said he has about 20 new signs to mix in.

Progress on the as yet unnamed (like to name projects) shoulder pag rig.
went from 6 tags to 16 yesterday.
ACE hardware had sheets of phosphor bronze. I love PB!
Got a metric shitload of rivets too.
I'm bringing the rivets and metal to help spiff up other folks gear.
Come by espresso camp in terminal city. We'll spruce ya right up!

Foxfur wrote:Got a metric shitload of rivets too. I'm bringing the rivets and metal to help spiff up other folks gear. Come by espresso camp in terminal city. We'll spruce ya right up!

Ff

Seriously? Awesome! No I mean seriously awesome! I am quite likely to need rivet repair on this "Valkyrie breast plate" I am making (not real bronze or any kind of metal at all actually: weak), so, that is real good news!

"Burning Man ruined my life as I knew it, and I have never been happier." -mgb327

Foxfur wrote:Got a metric shitload of rivets too. I'm bringing the rivets and metal to help spiff up other folks gear. Come by espresso camp in terminal city. We'll spruce ya right up!

Ff

Seriously? Awesome! No I mean seriously awesome! I am quite likely to need rivet repair on this "Valkyrie breast plate" I am making (not real bronze or any kind of metal at all actually: weak), so, that is real good news!

NOT WEAK! It is fantastic and deserves your taking inordinate pride in it.
Seriously, come by and we will take the extraordinary and make it extra extraordinary.
Yippie!

I found a neat copper disk in my metal repository today. It's three inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick. Five seconds after hefting it admiringly I knew exactly what fate awaited it. First set it down on the rough concrete floor and smacked it with a three different hammers and a piece of rebar for about 5 minutes. Then I went nuts on it with the stamps. Didn't sit down and write anything out, just made it up as I went along. Words are fun. I like words.
It is called 'The Wheel of Truth and Despair'.
Was gonna keep it off the radar but it's too neat not to share.
(Insert footage of Foxfur wiggling tail and doing happy little foxy dance )

When reading in person it is impossible to read without continuously rotating it. It's a primitive reflex or something. Gets you a little dizzy and part of the forehead mildly throbs. Such a great build up and at the center of it all is disappointment. The reason for not going to the very center is that I may thread a brass bolt modified on the lathe through the center and mounted thru a ball bearing to be mounted on the backplate of the pad rig. Not sure yet.
My stamp set is missing the U, so they're replaced with a V. Thanks ancient romans!

The pad armor rig thingy is up to 22 message plates.
The patina solution I'm using (copper chloride & sulfate in water) is working great. About three applications with a qtip gives it that ancient look but it reduces contrast making the stamped messages kinda difficult to read. Dug up a black paint pen and painted the whole surface black then wiped it off. It stays in the letters and even cooler, in all of the surface defects.
Looks so ancient it's like it's from the future Gotta to share at least one.

I giggle every time I look at it. Actually I do for all of them. Fun!

###lucky.bastard
That Hole Foods is awesome! Love it

***robbidobbs
Your FUCK THE MATH! stencil really grabs me. I can see it spraypainted on my truck somewhere.

Grinding all the paint off my mothers Pedicab because she wants it to be a different color... well and because its got some surface rust, but mainly because of the color thing. Still trying to think of ideas for the bike I want to build...

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.

Mrpatatomoto wrote:Grinding all the paint off my mothers Pedicab because she wants it to be a different color... well and because its got some surface rust, but mainly because of the color thing. Still trying to think of ideas for the bike I want to build...